Saturday, February 18, 2017

THE TRIPODS - Season One, Episode One - BBC (1984)

"The Tripods" was a series of books written by John Christopher in the 60's. In 1984, the BBC made it into a 30 minute TV series. Although available now on DVD, I don't think it ever aired on American TV, or if it did, I sure as Hell didn't know about it, but then there was a lot I didn't know, after all, it was 1984!
From the looks of it so far, it seems like George Orwell was off by about 33 years, but that's a different story!

Welcome to another Saturday Night Special in the The Dungeon! Our short feature tonight is Season one, Episode one of "The Tripods!"

Something is definitely not right here! Instead of 100 years into the future, it looks like 100 years into the past! So this is what the future is going to look like, nice and serene!

"But now the time has come, and there's no place to run, time has come today!" - The Chambers Brothers.
High noon is when the party starts in this village!

It's Jack's turn, he just turned 16, and he's more than happy to make the needed modifications!

Here they come!!!

"The Tripods" are the product of some very early CGI work, and are quite impressive!

Jack is hoisted up into the giant robot! I guess "The Tripods" weren't advanced enough to have beams!

And while "The Tripods" do their business on Jack, the rest of the village has a picnic until Jack is returned a new man!

Jack has been capped and will never be capable of free thinking again, because as "The Tripods," and we all know, thinking just causes problems and gets people in trouble!

Life is much simpler and better this way!

Let the party begin!!
The music in "The Tripods" was written by Mr. Ken Freeman who has kept very busy over the last 31 years with just two popular British hospital TV dramas, working as composer, and in the music department of 450 episodes of "Casualty," and another 608 episodes of "Holby City!" Wow!!

I like this shot!

Cousins Henry and Will Parker are not too sure if they go along with this whole capping thing, especially since their time is coming up soon! Henry on the left was played by Jim Baker who stopped acting after this show, and John Shackley as Will on the right who acted a bit more and eventually quit the biz and moved to Chile.

The outcasts of this society, the uncapped vagrants are always trying to cause problems! They don't understand that Tripod Lobotomies are a good thing!

In a nutshell, after much deliberation, the boys decide to run away from the village and find the White Mountains the vagrants have told them about, where people still think freely without fear of retort!

But it's not going to be an easy journey because The Tripods are always watching!

I'd love to have a copy of this 7" single by Ken Freeman, but they are a minimum of 20 bucks or more when you can find one.

The cover illustration of this German version of the book is really cool, which reminds me, once again, I'd like to say Danke to our buddy in Berlin, Lord Litter, who has been doing a lot of work in the background, helping me find material lately! If you've got some time, and you want to hear some different music, then do yourself a favor and head on over and check it out!

"The Tripods" was on for two seasons, but the story was a trilogy, so it never had a proper ending! Finishing the series would be a good project for somebody to take on. It would be a moneymaker no doubt for somebody with lots of money and no ideas!!! I'd like to see it anyway!

7 comments:

I was working at a PBS TV station when we aired this and the second series. They never filmed the third series which would have brought closure. I remember writing and producing on air spots promoting two marathon airings of the two series we had. It was a treat screening all the episodes AS my job at work!

NYC's PBS station, Channel 13, ran both seasons in the early 1990s.I recorded them on VHS and gave a neighbor's kids who were reading the books a two-day marathon of them!She and I dated for several months after that, untill they moved.Still have the videotapes.

DWRAYGER DUNGEON PRESENTS: The Monster Movie Music Manifesto

Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Spy, Super-Hero, JD, Thriller and Noir films, that's what we like, and a recurring theme in a lot of those kinds of movies has always been music! There were rockin' clubs and cafes with cool jukeboxes, teen poolside parties with local bands, sometimes it was a seedy bar with a sleazy torch singer, a beatnik coffeehouse, maybe dancing somewhere in outer space, or some weird tribal ceremony on a cool secluded island with giant monsters running around, and you could count on it that a lot of the time there was smoking and drinking going on. It was a fun time!! A lot of movies also had quirky, swingin', jazzy or rockin' themes or credits, or maybe just some wild Psychotronic elements! We started with the music from 50's & 60's Monster Movies, but we later morphed into the new, bigger and better, Rock and Soul, 70's brevity, 80's maybes, 1940's Gorilla and Bela site from Hell! So, sit down, and take a load off, pour yourself a cool one, and order up something hot and greasy, because we have a lot of tasty tidbits on the menu, way outside the realm of good taste! If any of the postings just happen to step on anybody's toes, let us know & we will remove them immediately, if not sooner!! We recognize all formal copyrights, and do this solely to support and promote the films featured! This forum is only being presented in a critical and scholarly critique, and should not be construed as anything else. It's just all for Fun & Historical Education in an effort to keep bad taste alive forever!!! If the words and pictures pique your interest, then please go out & buy, or rent the movies, wherever you can find them! All soundclips are approximately two minutes long, just enough to give you a feel for the movie! When we post a sound clip, it will only stay up 30 days or less!

Here are some good places to start your search for hard to find cult films on the internet:

Now you can get 2 Dungeon Movies on DVD - Click on the pic for Paypal - or, leave a comment!

TRASH PALACE!

The place to find all those strange flicks you've been looking for!

CULT ACTION!!

When it comes to movies, the name of this site speaks for itself!

BSC MUSIC

If you would like to hear more amazing music from composers like Peter Thomas and Martin Böttcher, then do yourself a favor and check out BSC Music! There Are Still Places In The World To Buy Cool Music!